Mercury Direct in Virgo Conjunct Saturn and Precisely-Timed Strategic Information

Mercury went direct at 21 Virgo yesterday afternoon. Now it's heading direct toward its final pass over the Saturn-Uranus opposition and the square to Pluto in Capricorn. 

 - Mercury in Virgo opposite Uranus Rx in Pisces - October 4 at 3:06 p.m. MDT 

- Mercury in Virgo conjunct Saturn in Virgo - October 8 at 12:34 a.m. MDT 

- Mercury enters Libra - October 9 at 9:46 p.m. 

- Mercury in Libra square Pluto in Capricorn - October 10 at 12:44 p.m. MDT 

I can't rouse much enthusiasm for this. On a global level, this Mercury direct action will probably coincide with some "big announcements" regarding Iran and its nuclear facility. 

Let's recall...the Obama Administration has known for nine months about this nuclear facility and chose to drop it into the media, with Virgoan precision, during the G20 meeting. Manufacturing consent and creating a big global uproar. 

This became the big story, completely overshadowing what actually went on at the G20 meeting, as well as the police-state brutality against the protesters, including (for the first time in history) the use of sound weapons. The U.S. government seems to be itching for an excuse to invade Iran. Creating perceived threats and spreading their war machine...  

"Moreover, as America becomes an increasingly multi-cultural society it may find it more difficult to fashion a consensus on foreign policy issues except in the circumstance of a truly massive and widely perceived direct external threat." 

 - Zbigniew Brzesinski, top Obama foreign policy advisor, in his 1998 book The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy and Its Geostrategic Imperatives 

See any similarities between Brzesinski's sentiment and this one?  

"Naturally the common people don't want war; neither in Russia, nor in England, nor in America, nor in Germany. That is understood. But after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.” 

 - Nazi Hermann Goering at the Nuremberg Trials 

Media as propaganda tool and control mechanism... 

I've always found it bizarre that the only nation that ever actually dropped a nuclear bomb on human beings (twice) is now the self-imposed global watchdog in charge of who can have nukes and who can't. 

Saturn in Virgo enters its retrograde shadow October 11. We'll be revisiting this pass of Saturn through the final degrees of Virgo and into Libra during Saturn's next retrograde (January-May 2010). We'll also be revisiting the Saturn in Libra-Pluto in Capricorn square - the first of three happens November 15. 

Restructuring within hierarchical power structures, new balance of power, new relationships, new allegiances, all with big, old "brotherly love" grins on their faces. Showing a surface level of Libra peace and cooperation while the root motivations and strategic actions remain hidden to the people. Look beneath the surface, when the cameras are off, to see what's really going on behind our backs, in our names. 

The final Mercury-Pluto square (October 10) and a Venus-Pluto square immediately after Venus enters Libra (October 15) are more preparation on a personal level for the series of longer-term cardinal squares we're heading into, starring Pluto in Capricorn. 

 From a previous post: 

"You can see how very important it is that we get these cardinal new initiatives, new directions, new forms of leadership down pat. And that we successfully complete all preceding preparations while Saturn is in Virgo. We're heading to a long series of cardinal squares between now and 2015. Saturn in Libra squaring Pluto in Capricorn and then Uranus in Aries squaring Pluto in Cap. 

Grand-scale new directions on both personal and global levels squaring off against each other. New forms of leadership will be struggling into existence...and those who didn't get the self-sovereign, egalitarian memo will be fighting each other for supremacy. We're going over and over the cardinal squares now because we need to get a handle on these energies personally, in our own lives, or risk being bowled over by transpersonal directions and events." 

As we saw at the G20 Summit, we had an undemocratic, unelected world government exert itself and put itself in charge of world economic decisions that affect all other countries on the planet. Top-down, behind-closed-doors hierarchy at its finest, with a blisteringly brutal police and military state ready to impose it. 

Again, at the risk of sounding redundant, these are not our leaders.

Gross.

"If there's such broad consensus on the plan of action for a global economic oligarchy then why the thousands of military and militarized police attacking people in the streets with tear gas, rubber bullets and sound weapons.

Why is there no coverage on the fact that these people have been made into criminals for the very act of assembling to protest. Your silence makes me sick corporate media."

- CBC online commenter Orgizmo


"Why only G-8 or G-20? Only the richest 8-20 countries matter. Everyone else is subject to their undemocratic, self-beneficial decisions. The other countries on the planet should get together a G-198 or so and pull the rug out from under the minority G's."

- CBC online commenter paulonius


"And the World Government progresses, right on schedule...

These are the people whose deregulation and 'liberalisation' schemes, created behind closed doors without oversight and protected from the democratic process by all manner of violent repression, created the current economic crisis they now tell us necessitates the transferring of the wealth of the public coffers into private hands.

The people they were teargassing and beating in the streets outside their various summits were the ones warning that this disaster was coming.

For 15 years."

- CBC online commenter JordanThornton

Disturb-o-rama - G20 in Pittsburgh

The Old World Order morphs into the New World Order as Pluto goes direct on zero Capricorn...

"The old system of international economic co-operation is over," British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said. "The new system, as of today, has begun."

Apparently the G20 is now taking the reins from the G8 as the body responsible for world economic issues. China takes over from the United States?

And the Sun in Libra (diplomatic relations) squares Pluto in Capricorn (hidden strategic manoevres within power hierarchies) on the first degrees of those cardinal signs. The initial push...

For more on the astrological influences involved here, click this post.

How many people know the details or ramifications of this strategic move going down behind closed doors, guarded by a few thousand riot police in Pittsburgh? How many people know what's on the agenda?

I'm not sure who elected these yahoos as "world government" in the first place, but now we've got 20 figureheads supposedly "running" the world's economy.

The G20 includes:
(From CBC online poster 48dumas.)

1 * Argentina: President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner
2 * Australia: Prime Minister Kevin Rudd
3 * Brazil: President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva
4 * Canada: Prime Minister Stephen Harper
5 * China: President Hu Jintao
6 * France: President Nicolas Sarkozy
7 * Germany: Chancellor Angela Merkel
8 * India: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
9 * Indonesia: President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono
10 * Italy: Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi
11 * Japan: Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama
12 * Mexico: President Felipe Calderón
13 * Russia: President Dmitry Medvedev
14 * Saudi Arabia: King Abdullah
15 * South Africa: President Jacob Zuma
16 * South Korea: President Lee Myung-bak
17 * Turkey: Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
18 * United Kingdom: Prime Minister Gordon Brown
19 * United States: President Barack Obama

The 20th member is the European Union, which is represented by the rotating Council presidency and the European Central Bank.

In addition to these 20 members, the following forums and institutions, as represented by their respective chief executive officers, participate in meetings of the G-20:

* International Monetary Fund
* World Bank
* International Monetary and Financial Committee
* Development Committee of the IMF and World Bank

There's an apropos Merc Retro typo in the photo caption run by CBC online:

"The leaders of the G20 summit gather around the meeting table fat Pittsburgh Convention Centre on Friday. (Jim Bourg/Reuters)"

Article here. Although, the CBC article is just official line garbage. It's pretty hilarious (black humour) that people have to read the list of G20 nations as well as the connection to the World Bank and International Monetary Fund from an online commenter rather than in the CBC article itself. Since CBC was stripped to the bone and moved to mostly videojournalists to "save money," its coverage is little better than the privates. I suppose it's what you would expect these days from state-funded journalism, but it used to be so much better. A long, long time ago...or was it really so long ago?

There are tonnes of videos on YouTube that show the insane police presence - martial law, in actuality.

A CNN reporter was hit by some tear gas (*gasp!*), which apparently is a big story. The hundreds of thousands of protesters who have been gassed and shot with rubber bullets (which cause way more pain than the word "rubber" would lead you to believe) at protests over the past 15 years don't make the news, but here is a video about CNN Guy taking a hit of tear gas.

If the robotic Big Brother voice and the use of sound weapons (on anyone, let alone legally protesting citizens) don't disturb the hell out of you, I fear you've already accepted the New World Order.

Note: YouTube removed the first video I linked to showing the use of the sound weapons (LRADs), so I posted another.

The sound weapons are called LRADs (Long Range Acoustic Devices) and were "originally intended to be used by American warships to warn incoming vessels approaching without permission."

Nice to see they've adapted the use of these weapons for use on U.S. citizens voicing their opposition and practising lawful assembly in the streets. These weapons can permanently destroy a person's hearing.

They used CS gas (a derivative of cyanide), tear gas, pepper spray, water cannons filled with chemicals and rubber bullets on us in Quebec City at the Free Trade Area of the Americas protest in 2001, but I haven't seen these sound weapons being used before. Disturbing doesn't even cover it. It's being reported on internet news sources that this is the first time in history sound weapons have been used on citizens. Escalation of militarized police states...

Pluto in Capricorn relating to control of hierarchical institutions and control of people through those institutions, especially those institutions related to the use of force with a top-down chain of command.

Civilian protesters are also reporting seeing police with microwave guns, also referred to as Active Denial Systems. No, folks. This is not science fiction. I wish it were. These ADSs are "millimeter-wave transmitters primarily used for crowd control," informally called pain rays. Basically, these weapons direct electromagnetic radiation at a person "causing an intensely painful sensation of extreme heat." I think we can see from the overuse of taser weapons (and related injuries and deaths) where the possiblities of misuse lie with these things...

All the while, the corporate-owned media writes the protesters off as "anarchists." hahaha Oooooh, the big, scary anarchists! They're gonna get you if you don't allow thousands of riot police to roam your streets and tell you what you can do and where you can go. While so-called elected leaders sell your country to the highest corporate bidder behind closed doors.

You can see Pluto in Capricorn trying to unearth this stuff, but the state control is still doing its job of keeping people in the dark.

Who pulls the strings of the puppets?

Another creepy thing about this G8/G20 shift is that the next G8 summit will go on in Huntsville, Ontario, Canada in June of 2010, and the G20 summit (hosted by South Korean President Myung-bak Lee) will go on SIMULTANEOUSLY.

For "world governing bodies" that already lack transparency, accountability and public awareness, doubling up the summits is just going to make those problems worse. They seem to be layering their big strategic meetings so that the process is even more opaque and removed from view. I'm sure this is purposeful...and very Plutonic. Merging the activities of bodies of power, consolidating the power and remaining murky about the decisions made behind closed doors, outside public awareness.

Using this same strategy, the United Nations General Assembly is going on at the same time as the G20 Summit in Pittsburgh.

Again, layering of events, crowding the media and allowing much less public attention for each individual event.

It's an absolute mockery of what government is supposed to be. Government is supposed to work for the people, not the other way around. Government is supposed to act on the will of the people, in the best interests of all citizens. The will of the people doesn't enter into the equation here. The majority of people have no idea what these governments are up to. How can we when it's all done behind fences and armed riot police?

The Pressure Eases...A Bit

Mercury Rx in Virgo is pulling away from Saturn in Virgo and out of its opposition to Uranus Rx in Pisces, and you can feel the pressure easing, especially mentally. Our brains (and entire physiological systems) are out of the vice grip...for now.

The Sun, newly in Libra, is also pulling out of this morning's square to Pluto in Capricorn. More good news on the "tensions easing" front.

Mercury is, of course, stationing direct September 28 and will make a final pass over the opposition to Uranus Rx in Pisces while conjuncting Saturn in Virgo in early October. That final pass with Mercury direct should feel much less constricting and internally pressurized than the one we just experienced. The final pass should be more about putting what we've gotten clear on during the retrograde into action, the finishing Virgoan touches and final details, sanded down using the finest-grained sandpaper.

The Mercury-Saturn opposition to Uranus we just experienced with both Mercury and Uranus retrograde was some cosmically downloading madness, I must say. So much going on in our own minds and bodies that we could only be partially conscious of at the time. Too much consciousness of the exact details would fry the system, so you have to love the Piscean psychic anesthesia during those times. Now, we should be infused with the necessary cosmic awareness and connections. The circuits have been charged and tuned up, and we start to move forward as Mercury goes direct.

Other than Mercury stationing direct at 21 Virgo on September 28, we have no major aspects going on until Sunday, October 4 when we experience the Aries Full Moon and Mercury opposing Uranus in Pisces for the final time with Mars in Cancer trining Uranus. That trine should ease the overloading, short-circuiting potential of the Mercury-Uranus contact by bringing in the physical/emotional outlet of Mars in Cancer.

So as the Sun begins its transit of Libra and we step into fall, we really are enjoying a clearing point where we can catch our breath and enjoy some equilibrium.

That's not to say that there aren't major things going on in people's natal charts, triggered by the transits.

But as far as the cosmic weather forecast, things should be pretty clear for the next ten days.

Mercury Rx in Virgo is Still Right on the Saturn-Uranus Opposition And TMI is Painful, New Allegiances Emerge with the G20 in Pittsburgh

The amount of information being dug up during this Mercury Retrograde is immense. But as always when Virgo is involved, only some of it will be personally pertinent. We have to choose our information sources carefully, then pick through the information and focus only on what's necessary - the missing puzzle pieces of information and angles of perspective without which we could not move forward.

The squares of Mercury in Libra to Pluto in Capricorn have kicked up a slew of information related to the dark and twisted mess of our hierarchical power structures. Now, as Mercury moves retrograde, there is a rehashing of information. Facts and figures and informational tidbits are pushing to the surface to give us a clearer big-picture understanding about what this Pluto transit through Capricorn has unearthed so far, what's really going on behind the scenes within the structural hierarchies. Determining the extent of the grand-scale corruption, lack of legitimacy and hidden motives within these set-ups and the mess people are finding themselves in when they've bought into what these set-ups were selling. Wading through the rubble and trying to determine: what now?

Hidden motives, secret allegiances, under-the-table handshakes. The connections are becoming clearer. As fast as the dirty deals are made, Mercury Rx in Virgo (the virgin) is working to inform us of them.

We're in the final stages of Virgoan adjustment and reorientation, armed with the details Mercury Retro is digging up. The pressure of that process, coloured by the square to Pluto, is pretty difficult.

Pluto is direct now in Capricorn and the old-school hierarchies are restructuring themselves into new hierarchies. The Old World Order becomes the New World Order. Shifts in power and in allegiance are happening within the same old set-ups, and these same old set-ups are being sold to desperate people as new and improved. People are clamoring for the next new thing. The next get-rich-quick stock or idea. Business people are consulting astrologers and psychics, desperate for that inside tip that will take them to the top.

And the decision is put forth to humanity, in this very polarizing time: to take one's place within these hierarchies, to scramble for power and position within the new old set-ups...or to take one's leave from all that is personally illegitimate and to become soul sovereign.

Informational warfare is in full swing and as is always the case when Pluto is involved, we must dig through the surface words to the underlying motivation, to the root energy, and sever ties with what isn't compatible with us.

Mercury Rx in Virgo conjuncts Saturn early tomorrow morning at 3:08 a.m. MDT, assisting us in picking our way through the onslaught of information sources threatening to overwhelm us. These are sobering times, and this connection of Mercury and Saturn drives home that point. If we have not been as discerning as we should have been, Saturn will put us in check here. (Erm...not looking forward to that, actually.)

One thing that is not nice about this combo of Mercury Rx and Saturn in Virgo is the possibility of anxiety and worry. Mental stress about our situations and where we go from here can be somewhat overwhelming these days. Virgo is prone to worry and turning things over and over in the mind. Saturn relates to constriction and restriction, so we can feel confined with these worries and anxious thoughts. Combine that with dark, pressure-filled contacts to Pluto in Capricorn and the feeling of being stretched past the point of comfort with the "grand meaning of it all" Uranus in Pisces and, yeah, not the greatest feeling of astro aspects.

Mercury Rx in Virgo is opposite Uranus Rx in Pisces, exact Wednesday morning. So not only do we have the daily information sources and conversations to wade through but we also have the pressure of integrating downloads of spiritual insight and perspective. A lot to contend with.

We must use the skills we've been developing during Saturn in Virgo here to separate the wheat from the chaff and deal only with the specific information that is most personally meaningful. If we keep the floodgates open, we can expect headaches, stiff necks, repetitive stress and general overwhelm of the system.

Even though the Plutonic pressure is immense here, with perspective after perspective pushing and shoving for our attention, we have to close the dam down to a trickle...a meaningful trickle. Otherwise, we will miss the information and insight we really need.

Stepping back, getting out of the way and letting the processes going on do their thing (while maintaining awareness of what is going on around/through us) will help over the next couple weeks.

The Sun enters Libra tomorrow afternoon, and we reach the Fall Equinox. My favourite season. The first day of fall after a very tumultuous and challenging summer and a day of equilibrium. Here, we can come to a point of balance and catch our breath for a moment.

But not for too long. (Argh.) Because we almost immediately have the Sun in Libra squaring Pluto in Capricorn (8:22 a.m. MDT on September 23, just an hour before Mercury Rx opposes Uranus Rx).

I have to laugh.

That bloody cardinal square again on the zero degree of Libra/Capricorn. Precursor to Saturn in Libra squaring Pluto in Capricorn on that degree November 15 with two more squares following...

And here is the push forward. The initiating leadership and relationships formed as old hierarchies Plutonically morph into new ones...or people choose the egalitarian track and sever ties with as much of illegitimate hierarchy as they can.

The United Nations General Assembly will be held tomorrow, as the Sun enters Libra. (Still not convinced that astrology is used to plot the course?)

Obama will host the G-20 Summit in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on September 24 - 26. World "leaders" plot their course for this new and improved hierarchical reality, still rooted in the old pyramid scheme power structures. But new relationships among new power players within those power structures will now begin to come to the forefront.

They need a police force of 4,000 to contend with the tens of thousands of protesters (editor's note - uhhh...OK, way less than that made their way into the perimeter) who will be there voicing their displeasure with the world economic oligarchy. The people will be there demanding justice (Libra) and shining a light on the less-than-transparent dealings of the leaders of the G-20 countries.

And with a square to Pluto on zero Capricorn, there will be complex power struggles going on within these meetings. Betrayals and the fusion of new allegiances.

Let's not forget the vicious in-fighting and jockeying for position that will be prevalent within the structural hierarchies as Pluto transits Capricorn during the next 15 years, especially with the cardinal squares involved between now and 2015.

And it bears repeating...there are many different visions for the future of humanity on Planet Earth as we head into Aquarian times. It's up to each one of us which version we will support. The cardinal squares we keep being hit on are reinforcing the importance of being our own leaders in this respect.

Stevie Harper Loves Him Some Big Bruddah

The Harper Conservatives are attempting to pass their very own Patriot Act in Canadian Parliament to legalize the spying on citizens without a warrant. 

Two bills were introduced in June: the Investigative Powers for the 21st Century Act and the Technical Assistance for Law Enforcement in the 21st Century Act. 

*shudder* 

From an article in the Yukon News: 

"The legislation would allow authorities to track all types of electronic transmissions such as text messaging, e-mails, web browsing and internet phone lines - without a warrant. This is not quite eavesdropping: while it would allow authorities to trace the flow of information, they would not be able to read the content of message without a warrant. The legislation would also allow authorities to activate tracking devices in cellphones and cars. And the draft laws would compel internet service providers to provide the personal information of subscribers to authorities." 

And another article on the subject from the CBC. 

In an era in which anyone disagreeing with the government's agenda is labelled a terrorist, this grants the police some frightening powers. Fingers crossed that this government does come down, leaving these bills dead on the books.

Super Potent New Moon in Virgo Smack Dab on Saturn - September 18

Super potent, yes it is. But the challenge here is to focus the potency in the subtle and useful manner Virgo so enjoys. Let's be practical and use this energy most effectively to finish with any loose ends and prepare for the unfolding of what's to come. The energy preceding this New Moon will be very effective in tightening up the last details and finally completing things we've been dragging our feet on a bit...

The Virgo New Moon early Friday afternoon (12:44 p.m. MDT) finds us with the Moon meeting the Sun on top of (just a tiny bit past) Saturn, directly opposite Uranus and closely opposite Juno - both retrograde in late Pisces. Pallas and Mercury Rx are also in Virgo, creating a stellium in the sign (Pallas-Saturn-Sun-Moon-Mercury).

The third structure-morphing Saturn in Virgo - Uranus in Pisces opposition was exact yesterday, and this opposition aspect is still very tight and very much in effect, colouring the New Moon on Friday.

New Moons always signal the end of a previous cycle and the beginning of a new one, but with this New Moon happening right on the Saturn opposition to Uranus, the reverberations of this one have a much broader reach than usual. Reaching right into the new paradigm we're struggling to bring about...

Background: We're in the midst of a series of five Saturn-Uranus oppositions, four of which will be in the signs of Virgo and Pisces. The last time Saturn (structure, maturation and concrete progress) and Uranus (revolution, the unexpected and lightning-strike genius insights) opposed each other was in the 1960s...but in opposite signs from where they are now. (Saturn was in Pisces, Uranus was in Virgo). With these current oppositions, we're building on those 60s ideals of egalitarianism, freedom and love but grounding them in concrete reality. Building them right into the structures, right into the systems, and using them as a practical, day-to-day guiding vision. No fringe mentality here. No pie-in-the-sky. The challenge here is to apply the vision of what could be and should be on this planet right into the mainstream structural here and now. All the while determining what is the real track to take and what is just old paradigm hierarchy and control dressed up in new paradigm clothing.

With the Virgo stellium in the 10th house, watch what's being "handed down" to you, and reject what doesn't hit you as right.

We all have to take responsibility here for the question: What do you serve?

Our messenger planet is a crucial, crucial player here, keeping the necessary information circulating and providing perspective we might have missed the first time around. Mercury Rx disposits all the planets in the Virgo stellium while squaring Pluto, just direct in Capricorn. There's so much going on now, a behemoth of a process moving forward, and Mercury Rx in Virgo is working to keep it all straight.

There's no real new information being brought forth during the retrograde, but Mercury has its hands (and ears...and mouth) full going over what we've just experienced. Mercury is moving retrograde to the point where it conjuncted Saturn in Virgo on August 17 (which is also the point where Saturn left it's retrograde shadow) and will station direct there on September 28.

But back to the current situation...

Mercury Rx in Libra squares Pluto in Capricorn at the zero degrees of the signs early Thursday morning and retrogrades from Libra into Virgo tomorrow night, just in time for Friday's Virgo New Moon.

At that time, Mercury Rx will be on the 29th (anaretic) degree of Virgo directly opposite Juno Rx at 29 Pisces. Another potent alignment involved in this New Moon process. Our contacts and communications are so very purposeful now for bringing about the longer-term shift into the egalitarian Aquarian paradigm. This includes interactions with people in our day-to-day lives (could be some unexpected ones, too, with Uranus involved), but with Juno (soul mate asteroid) on 29 Pisces - the last degree of the zodiac - of equal importance is our communication with our spiritual guidance. Attuning to the assistance we receive from non-physical messengers as well as listening to the Universe talking to us through our mundane lives.

We must be very discerning now, clearing away the glut of unnecessary information we're subjected to on a daily basis and using our honed Virgoan wheat-from-chaff separating skills to get right to the heart of the matter.

The 29th degree contacts here between Mercury and Juno follow the completion/beginning theme of the New Moon with a final completion of old soul mate contracts/work, and a final clearing to make space for new ones designed to take us forward. If we listen closely, we'll be able to differentiate between the ways of interacting/relationship dynamics that are related to past cycles and are on their way out of our lives and the energy of the new ones. A final ushering out of the old and welcoming of the new.

All this has been an ongoing process, as there has been a lot of recent action on this 29 degree of Pisces. Venus stationed direct there conjunct Mars during its last retrograde in March-April 2009, making it a crucial influence in the current Venus cycle. Juno has been going back and forth over this degree and was there conjunct Uranus when Uranus stationed retrograde July 1. More on Juno on the 29th degree of Pisces here.

And this process continues with the New Moons in Libra and Scorpio over the next two months.

The asteroid Pallas is also in Virgo now, a part of the Virgo stellium, adding a feisty, philosophically-minded aspect to this New Moon. We're willing to stand our ground here. We know, quite specifically now, what's important to us, and we're willing to speak up about it.

This is a very sweet New Moon, also, as it marks the point where we've officially completed the first two-and-a-half legs of Saturn's journey through Virgo. (Yee haw!) Those who have been struggling with this transit (*puts up her hand*) should feel a lightening of the load here if we've kept out noses to the grindstone and worked on what Saturn instructed us to work on over the past two years.

Saturn is a picky taskmaster in Virgo, making us go over and over things with a fine-toothed comb. Even the smallest rough edge, neglected detail or sloppy statement can put us way off course. Saturn in Virgo knows this.

So we've been drilled on all those Virgo subjects. Yes, the usual ones like work, service, duty, communication, perfecting of details, cleanliness, organization, diet and holistic/systemic health and functioning, in general.

But also on the finer points of Virgo. Honing our skills of personal discernment, defining and enforcing boundaries, separating the necessary from the unnecessary, rejecting those things that are damaging to our systems, defining our particular skills and service and applying them in the right ways in the right situations, removing our energy and influence from situations that are no longer right for us personally, determining preferences, stripping down to the essentials in self and life, learning and mastering ourselves.

Dispositing Pluto in Capricorn and now the North Node in Capricorn, Saturn in Virgo has helped us get clearer on what we're willing to support and what we're not. We've taken responsibility for the application of our own personal energies and skills in this world. We've learned to define and honour what we do...performing our duties only for those people and in those situations deserving of our skillful efforts. We've broken old, outdated service habits (the servant's soul) and learned to protect ourselves from those with the "master's" soul who would take advantage of our good-heartedness and dutiful natures. We've withdrawn misplaced allegiances and redirected our efforts where necessary. We've refined the detrimental tail-end Piscean martyr out of our systems (and all other Neptunian/Piscean detrimental bad habits).

Saturn in Virgo is the "don't be a dumbass" placement.

Piece by piece, bit by bit, detail by detail, we've done it. Realigned our systems, physically, emotionally and psychically painful as it was. It's taken every bit of our focus at times, with a thoroughness only Virgo can manage, and it hasn't been easy.

But now, if we've put forth the very best of our effort under the Saturnine weight of this transit, if we've accepted our challenges and kept on keeping on even when we thought we could go no further...we'll have gained Saturn's respect. Self-respect. And we'll start to see some of the fruits of our labours. We can start to see where all this Virgoan preparation has taken us. Blow away the sawdust and see what we've carved out.

The Moon enters Virgo tonight at around suppertime (MDT), and as it goes dark between now and the New Moon Friday afternoon, we emotionally wrap up the first two-and-a-half decans of Saturn in Virgo. It's over now. Sigh of relief.

But let's not get too far ahead of ourselves on the celebratory front. It's true that Saturn is heading into Libra at the end of October which will mean a shift in vibe from focussed, detail-oriented self-improvement/mastery to relations with others, but Saturn in Libra will immediately move into square formation with Pluto in Capricorn on the first degree of those cardinal signs. That square will be a long-term influence, in effect to varying degrees of intensity until November 2010.

That zero degree cardinal square again! You can see how very important it is that we get these cardinal new initiatives, new directions, new forms of leadership down pat. And that we successfully complete all preceding preparations while Saturn is in Virgo. We're heading to a long series of cardinal squares between now and 2015. Saturn in Libra squaring Pluto in Capricorn and then Uranus in Aries squaring Pluto in Cap. Grand-scale new directions on both personal and global levels squaring off against each other. New forms of leadership will be struggling into existence...and those who didn't get the self-sovereign, egalitarian memo will be fighting each other for supremacy.

We're going over and over the cardinal squares now because we need to get a handle on these energies personally, in our own lives, or risk being bowled over by transpersonal directions and events.

Saturn will also retrograde back into Virgo April 7, 2010 for four months...until July 21, 2010.

So we're not out of the Virgoan woods yet. As always, Saturn will bring us right back to anything we've put off, procrastinated about or skimmed over the first time. That four-month period (April-July) next year really will be the last sweep, fixing the last few problematic issues and completing the last few details of Saturn in Virgo. It will also involve the fourth Saturn-Uranus opposition and the final one in the signs Virgo and Pisces. That last sweep through Virgo will be the point where we can really apply our skills and show off our mastery a little. (Not too much showing off, though. It's Virgo, after all.)

Pay attention to the Saturn in Virgo-ish Grand Finale themes in your life during the last three weeks of October. These are the things Saturn will revisit in its final pass through Virgo next spring/summer.

However! All this info is not to take anything away from the fulfillment and relief that comes with this New Moon in Virgo, wrapping up the bulk of Saturn's transit through the sign. I could weep, I'm so happy about this one. This really is a time to honour ourselves and others for all the hard work and effort we've put forth as we struggle to transition to a new way of doing things on this planet...

Being over the hump with the Saturn-Uranus opposition cycle is nothing to sneeze at either. We've completed three of five oppositions with only one remaining along the Virgo-Pisces polarity (April 26). Another relieving aspect of this Virgo New Moon.

Post-New Moon will be quite action-packed, as the Moon will conjunct Mercury Rx in Virgo, enter Libra and immediately square Pluto in Capricorn on Friday, all before the day is through. This lunar action echoes, of course, the longer-term aspects up ahead - the completion of the Mercury retrograde, the transit of Saturn into Libra and the square to Pluto in Capricorn - and provides some emotional preparation.

The zero degree cardinal square between Libra and Cappie yet again! We're getting a real dose in preparation for the upcoming series of Saturn in Libra squares to Pluto in Capricorn, and we get another dose after Mercury goes direct, re-enters Libra and squares Pluto in Cap again October 10.

An interesting facet of this month's New Moon is that it kicks off a series of eight New Moons at 24/25 degrees of the zodiac. From September 2009 to April of 2010, all New Moons will happen at those degrees of the signs Virgo through Aries.

Anyone with natal placements at or close to those degrees, especially, should experience a dramatic, multi-layered cycle of fresh, new beginnings. The last tendrils of old cycles dropping away here in a grand-scale way.

This push of new energy in the latter degrees of these signs is directly related, of course, to the finale of the Pisces-to-Aquarius transition. The Uranus-Neptune mutual reception is hanging out near those degrees. As is the Aquarius triple conjunction of Jupiter-Chiron-Neptune.

Ground Zero at Zero Capricorn

I'm not a predictive astrologer, but I did make one prediction for Pluto going direct at 0 degrees Capricorn on 9/11 - that the investigation into the official 9/11 story (and the massive holes in that story) would heat up and gain legitimacy within the mainstream. 

The CBC aired a program on September 11 called 9/11 Conspiracy Files: The Third Tower. I didn't watch it, but it's an indicator. (Although, the CBC always seems to couch everything in that "wink, wink, nudge, nudge...all right, we'll show this waaaaay out there side of the story just because we're so cool like that" tone that makes me gag. Well-fed yuppie Torontonians don't care so much about getting to the bottom of things - they're fine with things the way they are.) 

For something a little more Plutonic raw: The 9/11 Chronicles. 

The information about the failing health/deaths of tens of thousands of rescue workers from breathing in contaminated air after the buildings collapsed reminds me very much of depleted uranium exposure and Gulf War Syndrome from the first Gulf War. (Note - I have serious doubts about the legitimacy of Alex Jones and his connections, as well as that whole "9/11 truther" thing they've got going on, but I still dug The 9/11 Chronicles for the real people it featured doing their thing on this issue. It also made me laugh and not much does...) 

The information seems to be becoming more cohesive. The waves are getting bigger. The people with compelling evidence that things didn't go down the way we were told by the elected officials through the mainstream media are not setting this aside. 

The mainstream bulk of CNN-watching North Americans seem to have little interest in investigating the discrepancies in the official story of the attacks on the U.S. on September 11, 2001. And they're quick to write the people who are interested in uncovering the complete truth off as wacky conspiracy theorists. But it's important to get to the root of this. Getting to the root is important not only because it would show deceit and corruption on the part of the United States government (that's already been proven when no weapons of mass destruction were found in Iraq - the Bush Administrations' declared reason for invading the country) and not only because it would prove the United States government colluded in the mass murders of its own citizens but also because this attack was the whole basis for NATO troops getting involved in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.  

NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) is an intergovernmental military alliance set up after the second World War. There are 28 countries involved, including Canada. 

"[T]he organization constitutes a system of collective defence whereby its member states agree to mutual defence in response to an attack by any external party." 

So if one country in the alliance is attacked by an external party, it is as if they were all attacked. Basically, if it can be proven that the United States government colluded in any way in the attacks on the World Trade Center towers or the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, or had any fore-knowledge of the attacks and did not act to stop them, it is proven that the United States government, under George Bush, Jr., illegally used the attacks as an excuse to invade Iraq and Afghanistan. Because it was "being attacked by an external party," these attacks thereby (also illegally) drew all NATO troops into these wars. By taking part in NATO, member countries were forced to follow the Bush Administrations' lead. The horror. 

I would surmise that Canadian soldiers had no idea what they were being dragged into. From the role of peacekeepers to active combat in an immoral, insane war. Hell on Earth. 

The suicide rate among Canadian soldiers doubled from 2006 to 2007. The 2007 rate is triple what is was in 2003. Canada's Military Suicide Rate Doubled in a Year, Documents Show The man who compiles the suicide statistics says he believes the rise is linked to the intensification of Canada's mission in Afghanistan when soldiers moved into the volatile southern region in 2006. 

The astonishing thing to me is that so many people claim Bush's regime is "in the past" and that we should just move on with life. (The line they're being fed.) 

(???) 

Just move on? How? The situation remains the same. 

Just in Canada alone, two more soldiers came home from Afghanistan to be buried last week. One hundred and twenty nine of my fellow Canadians are gone. Their lives are over, and 129 families grieve. Entire communities grieve. 

People really have been snowed into thinking Obama means a clean slate. Not even close. The same policies and the same trajectory continue. Obama has installed the same players in his administration that were in Baby Bush's. The same motivations. No change in power structure or in agenda at all. I can feel the filthy dishonesty and injustice right to my bones. The reverberations of the damage done, the pain inflicted, the lives squandered knock me on my ass. 

But just move on? Just continue the cycle? No way.

Ow.

I must say, over a month of T-squares/Grand Crosses is starting to wear me down. I feel a little...eroded.

And now we have this Mercury Rx in Libra square to Pluto in Capricorn that seems to be bringing the harsh in a big way.

Not to mention Venus in Leo opposite Chiron conjunct Black Moon Lilith in Aquarius. Ouch. The "screw you effing people! We've told you this all along" aspect. Old wounds and battle scars from the real, down-and-dirty struggle to bring Aquarius into existence. The pain and injustice of being vilified and ostracized on all different levels, from all different people and groups, for living true to ourselves and speaking the darker, hierarchy-busting truths that so threaten the status quo.

We're in the "coalescence of the past" stage of the Moon cycle at the moment (Thanks, Nick Anthony Fiorenza) with the Moon void in Cancer until it enters Leo late this afternoon MDT. So it's kind of sitting on us.

We're also heading ever-nearer the third Saturn in Virgo - Uranus in Pisces opposition exact early tomorrow morning. That opposition is coupled with the Venus in Leo opposition to Neptune Rx, the final opposition of Venus in Leo to the bodies in Aquarius (Jupiter-Chiron-Neptune, joined now by BML).

A lot of squares and oppositions making it all a little tense and heavy at the moment...with a lot of retrograde influence forcing the tension internal.

Baby Bush's Cross-Canada Tour

Bush is getting bolder.

His first post-presidency Canadian speech was made in ultra-neo-conservative Calgary, Alberta in March of 2009. You can understand it...Calgary being the most corporate, Big Oil, Americanized city in Canada. Plenty of people willing to drop $400-a-plate to listen to a war criminal wax poetic about his days in office. Among them journalist and now Conservative-appointed Senator Pamela Wallin and ex-hockey player Kelly Hrudey.

Two hundred protesters showed up in downtown Calgary to voice their disapproval of Bush being in town - and being paid handsomely to be in town. Four were arrested for very minor offenses.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police dropped $125,000 to police the event and protect vulnerable little Bushy. $125,000 of public dollars spent for a 24-hour visit to the city. By a war criminal. And it was the PROTESTERS who were arrested. Funny little world we're living in, isn't it?

Apparently, Bush's speech in Calgary went over so well that he is now planning to continue his Canadian tour in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan on October 21, 2009. My home province.

There is definitely a large and very vocal contingent of neo-conservatives in Saskatchewan who I'm sure are just salivating at the chance to back-slap old Bushy and congratulate him on a job well done. (And what job is that? Entering a war on false pretenses, hundreds of thousands of dead Iraquis, 4,000 dead U.S. soldiers, tens of thousands wounded, 129 (and counting) dead Canadian soldiers, torturing prisoners and detaining them without due process, stripping citizen's civil rights through the Patriot Act, FEMA camps, deregulating derivatives, collapsing the economy, bankrupting the nation, millions unemployed, etc.)

But Saskatchewan is a much more libertarian province than Alberta. Saskatoon is a much different city from Calgary. So this is going to be very interesting.

The outcry is already well under way: "Bush Protest In Works" from the Saskatoon Star-Phoenix.

This story comes from the same newspaper I interned for in 1999 that denied my story on protesters heading to the Battle in Seattle and then (once it became a sexy story) censored my subsequent stories on it.

Signs of progress!

Editor's note: Oh, scratch that "signs of progress" thing. It turns out the Saskatoon StarPhoenix newspaper is one of the SPONSORS bringing Bush to town! hahahaha How's that for a free and fair press? They're not even going to bother pretending anymore...

Pluto Stationing Direct on 9/11 At Zero Capricorn

I feel ya.

This long-term Mercury in Libra square to Pluto in Capricorn (as both planets stationed - Mercury retrograde and Pluto direct) is making for some painfully heavy and loaded communication. Every word now has the potential to trigger that deep, intensely emotional internal processing...and to push us to our breaking points. So now as Mercury moves retrograde, we temper our communication, slow the pace and process what we've already come to learn. Our words as well as the words we take in have to be carefully measured and balanced here. Only the finest on Libra's scales.

We have to put forth the effort to maintain the light/dark, yin/yang balance here mentally. Things can get very dark and very bleak with Pluto contacts, and it's important now not to get sucked into that vortex. The economic/worldwide government situation is forcing a lot of people into some very dark places. As is the intensity of the energetic shifts we're going through, in general. Awareness is a bitch. Battle back by watching a lot of videos of cute kitties and puppies! heh heh

Pluto is sitting stationary in the sky at the moment and will creep direct tomorrow (September 11) morning. Zero Capricorn at Ground Zero. Here we start to figure out what to do now, how we move forward from square zero, dealing with the aftermath of complete economic collapse and grand-scale corruption within our structural outgrowths.

Collectively, those who want the awareness have integrated the understanding that we were set up to fail within this system. That some knew it would happen and in fact banked on it happening. Even orchestrated it. We've always felt this underneath it all, but now we move forward from this ground zero point armed with concrete knowledge. We head out of the rubble truly as our own authorities.

Mercury is moving retrograde in Libra to another square to Pluto in Capricorn on the first degrees of the signs (September 17). Very potent on the first degrees of those cardinal signs, so the loaded communications do not let up. More effort toward getting our new directions and new initiatives underway. They're being wrestled out of us. Listen to a little Rage Against the Machine for the flavour of this aspect...ongoing. Mercury is within range of a square to Pluto during the entire three-week retrograde and after it goes direct...until mid-October.

The power of oratory and the Facade of the Authority Figure are tools the individuals within corrupt hierarchical power structures have always used to advance their agendas.

But we can use the current cosmic energies in even more powerful ways - to see through the lies of our elected officials and business heads. To peel away the layers of double talk. To see with X-Ray Plutonic vision through the facades and the strategic moves. To listen intuitively and separate true motivation from the words designed to sell it to us.

We can use the power of Pluto direct at zero Capricorn to deconstruct the power hierarchies, strip them down and disarm them, right from the ground up. To blow the lid off the pyramid scheme scams and demand better. We can remove ourselves here (Saturn in Virgo) from any harmful, coercive influence and align only with what we know in our souls is real and true.

Mercury Rx is heading right back to the point where it first conjuncted Saturn in Virgo (August 17). You'll recall that this is also the point where Saturn left its retrograde shadow and entered degrees it will not be revisiting in its next retrograde (Virgo 21 - 27). We have completed the first two legs of Saturn's journey through Virgo (more on that later at the Virgo New Moon - when it's official), but now, true to Virgoan form, Mercury heads back over these degrees to finish every last detail and integrate every last piece of pertinent information. Internal processing of the events we've experienced and preparation for what's up ahead.

Mercury will go direct again September 28, squaring Pluto in Capricorn for the final time from the first degree of Libra on October 10. Going over that cardinal square, the initial thrust of the new directions, working out the kinks...

Venus in Leo is opposing the Aquarius triple conjunction now, also. Venus will oppose Jupiter in Aquarius tomorrow just before Pluto goes direct. "This little light of mine! I'm gonna let it shine!" The power of who we are and the creative expression of that, pure and true, right from the heart, is the balancing tension necessary for that detached, global community Aquarian emphasis. We're not just expendable numbers - a dangerous and common sentiment from Aquarius at its extreme. We really ARE unique and beautiful snowflakes, no matter what Fight Club tells us. So shine on.

Knowing exactly who we are and expressing that, no apologies, is the way we avoid entering into false karasses or being swallowed up by the group. This is how Aquarian groups and communities grow and expand in the right way...

That Venus in Leo opposition to Jupiter, Chiron and Neptune (all Rx) in Aquarius is ongoing for the next five days. Venus will finish the opposition on September 15, the same day as the third Saturn in Virgo-Uranus in Pisces opposition.

Black Moon Lilith has also re-entered Aquarius and has joined the Aquarius triple conjunction, adding her depth and breadth of awareness to the proceedings. BML will make sure we don't get too wrapped up in the Aquarian idealism and potential of it all without full awareness and integration of what has gone on and continues to go on around the dark, disturbing edges.

The possibility of science and technology destroying life on this planet is very real at this point in human history if the voices giving the crucial warnings are not heeded. BML is doing her very best to bring her consciousness to the table while all the blueprints are being drawn up for the future plans on this planet - even if she's not invited. Especially if she's not. And we can assist BML consciousness now by honouring it, listening to it and bringing it to the table in our own lives, integrating it in our own blueprints, as well as demanding its inclusion on the local, federal and global stage.

Rah, rah! Go, Black Moon Lilith! Kick some ass and take some names.

Reply to Anonymous Commenter - Limerent Infatuation

(Anonymous, I hope you don't mind if I reply here. I was just thinking about this subject a couple days ago, so I do believe it's serendipity. I think this info could be helpful to anyone in this situation.)

Hi Willow, thank you for this insightful article. I googled it up because I was looking for an explanation for natal NN conj BML in last degree of Sag! I am currently going thru a painful time dealing with obsession with another who has his BML same degree as my NN. I have moved away from his locale. So currently Pluto is tranisitting this BM lilith in my 8th house. Your description of Lilith tells me that my growth lies in exploring this side of myself, all the strong and not so honored aspects of my feminine nature, and being a Gemini whose SN is conj the sun, and opposing the Lilith by about 7 degrees, I gather that I myself am not to back down from exposing lies and truths either in myself, others, or the world. Actually my entire life now is focussed on exposing this slimy underbelly as another has made reference to aka The Elite. 

But the painful thing I am dealing with now is this fascination, passion obsession for this man who I cannot have, and would probably even be extremely hurt by him, if I did. What is coming to light now is the truth about his feelings toward me, and the subsequent deception he has been practicing toward me. This is all too painful, to be made aware that what you counted on in another, was of your own making. He is not what he appears is what I am trying to say. Though the attraction is mutual, I am the one who cannot bear to stay away from him. I do want all this to come to a happy ending, and if anyone has any comments please I am open to advice, medication, anything!!


Hey, Anon...

I think what you're experiencing is a "condition" of sorts called limerence.

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I have also experienced this in the past, and it truly is one of the more torturous experiences a psyche can go through.

Limerence is a feeling of "love" where you are magnetically drawn to a person, even after a very short time, and are (often) somehow convinced on some level that this is the person for you. There is an obsessive, torturous quality to it often involving distracting, intrusive thoughts about the person. And man, can it last a long time!

I've associated it with a couple things astrologically. First, the darker side of Pisces/Neptune/12th House: seeing only the attractive/good qualities in the person (to your own detriment). The idealistic belief that love will prevail in the situation despite so much concrete evidence to the contrary, which is conveniently glossed over. The type of twisted naivete, belief, and hope that become closer to straight-up insanity.

And then Scorpio/Pluto/8th House: the psychological mindfuckery. The obsessive thoughts about the person. The concept of the soul mate or twin flame. The depth of hold of this stuff. Very deep and very powerful.

But as your situation indicates, the specific astrological flavour of limerence (or these types of situations) varies.

For you, with currently transiting (and stationing) Pluto conjunct the North Node/BML at 29 Sagittarius in the 8th house, yes, it's all about uncovering the hidden layers of the situation and letting confrontations with the dark, exposed truth bring you out of these feelings. These feelings are false - don't let your mind or emotions convince you otherwise. 

Knowing which truths to hold as your guide, which ones create the limerence-breaker energy. Holding those truths in your mind, coming back to them again and again.

Whatever truths about this man bring you to a state of clarity (ie. he's not the one for you, you deserve so much better, the right man is out there waiting for you when you finish with this guy, anything telling you otherwise is a limerent thought, etc.), repeat those to yourself every time a limerent thought pops into your head. Write them down and hang them on a Post-it note.

List all the qualities of him that you don't like, that aren't compatible with you. Be brutally honest. Then think about how, without this limerent obsession, any one of those qualities would be a deal-breaker with another suitor. He's got them all.

Think about the way you have felt around this man, the roller coaster, and don't focus on the excitement and passion...focus on the shitty feelings and all the times you have been disappointed and hurt. Because no man who was really right for you would include so much of that garbage. Keep reinforcing that to yourself even though part of you won't believe it.

I know this advice probably sounds extreme and maybe a little crazy to some people, but I know how strong limerence can be and how long one can be held in this cycle.

You have to be very strenuous with yourself about it, eventually not letting any limerent thoughts or feelings through the gate.

Limerence really does play with you. It's twisted. It's mean. It makes things that are not real seem real. It tells you things about the person that are not true. It makes you feel things that are not really related to this person...but you believe they are.

With the N. Node and BML at the 29th degree of Sagittarius, limerence is going to have many tricks up its sleeve. You're going to have to wade through many false beliefs about what love is and what love feels like. (Remember: he's not it.) The 29th degree of any sign is sort of the final exam degree involving lessons from all previous degrees of the sign. So you're going to have your resolve tested here and your willingness to face the whole truth about this limerence thing. Be strong.

Limerence definitely has a collective, archetypal quality to it, also...playing on the hopes and dreams of every lover who has ever existed, I think. Think of every woman who has ever stood on the seashore waiting for her man to come back from sea...while he had no real intention of doing so. Or he had a woman standing waiting like that on every seashore. Limerence goes into every nook and cranny of the collective understanding of love and relationship so that we can identify what aspects of it are false and get rid of the buggers once and for all. Clearing out the collective subconscious on the subject.

I would say with a Gemini South Node that your mind could screw you over by going over and over both sides of the situation.

With a Sadge N. Node/BML, there ARE no two sides of the story. There is one ultimate truth: this guy is not for you. This attraction is unhealthy, and you need to break its hold on you.

The belief that he is the one for you/relationship material will lessen more and more over time as long as you don't stoke the flame. Once you've learned all the tricks and games, bobs and weaves, the power of this situation over you will diminish. Eventually, you will wonder how you ever could have been attracted to such a man. You will probably even become repulsed by him. (Scorp) I know it feels like hell, but this will come to an end. You just have to work at it. Be ruthless.

This is difficult because being a Gemini Sun, your natural tendency would be to look at both sides of the situation, favouring the lighter, more romantic aspects in this situation. Your mind will be able to turn this over and over again, bringing in information and facts to try to convince yourself that this is a fated love.

It's not. It's fated only in that it exists to clear these illusions and delusions, these false beliefs about what love is.

You deserve so much better than this guy, and you will get it once you clear this out of your psyche.

A positive part of the Gemini influence, I think, will be the ability to get some intellectual detachment in the situation. It helps to see yourself as two people (the twins) right now. One of the twins has a bad case of limerent attraction to this dude who's no good. The other twin knows the truth about the situation. You can observe the thoughts the limerent twin thinks, the feelings she feels...but you can't let that twin get into the driver's seat.

There's an online support group of sorts here to check out if you're interested: Limerence Experienced

Spend time alone. Hang out in nature. Stop thinking about it for a while.

Keep exploring the layers of the situation until you get to the root of this attraction. Try to understand what triggers your attraction, and instead of acting on it, hold yourself back and observe the dynamics.

When your motivation is clear and true - to break all ties with this guy completely and end this limerent obsession - you'll know how to do that.

All the best to you.

Willow

Saturn in Virgo and Eating More Greens

This is a recipe for a salad dressing so good and so easy to make that it has me eating salad on a regular basis (from previous levels of next-to-none):

Oil and Vinegar Dressing

1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
1/2 cup soy sauce (use light to cut down on salt)
1/2 cup flax seed oil
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

Pour this mixture into an old, washed wine bottle with a cork - or, you know, a regular bottle. Keeps for about two months in the fridge due to the flax seed oil. Shake it in the bottle before you put it on your salad.

The only semi-tricky ingredient to find is the flax seed oil, which you have to buy at the organic grocery store.

I put this dressing on a salad of romaine lettuce, diced Roma tomatoes, carrot, Kalamata olives and crumbled feta cheese, and it is heaven. Cucumbers and spinach are also good to add.

I think you can also put some chopped garlic in this dressing. I haven't tried that, but I bet it would be good.

Full Moon in Pisces

We're heading to a very nice Full Moon in Pisces on Thursday evening/Friday morning (MDT). After a very tumultuous spring and summer, this moon is a soothing balm for the soul. Letting it all go and dissolving it into the abyss...

Cardinal T-Square Pulling Us Apart...or Is That Squeezing Us Until We Implode?

Oh, good. Both! heh heh

Just a note to remind us all that we're still under the influence of that very potent T-square involving the cardinal signs.

Very potent because it is taking place at the early degrees of the cardinal signs with Pluto in Capricorn stationing direct and Mercury in Libra stationing retrograde. (Mercury goes retro this Sunday, September 6 for three weeks.)

Throw Mars in Cancer into the mix to create the T-square. And then if you count Juno (soul mate asteroid) in early Aries, we've got ourselves a cardinal Grand Cross. Oh, boy. Getting it from all directions. These cardinal initiations really are the cross we bear at the moment.

Mars has been the catalyzing factor here, travelling through Gemini and its formation in a mutable (changing, adapting, transitioning) T-square last month into Cancer and its place in this cardinal (new directions, initiatives, leadership) T-square.

Our personal goals, motivations and what we really want are the connecting force here between these two T-squares that are packing a one-two punch.

The friction in the cardinal signs is creating something truly fresh in our lives, starting us on much-needed new cycles/chapters...but those new chapters/cycles are proving a bit of a beast to get off the ground.

It's a super-lengthy birthing process - long and arduous with many times when we just want to give up and call 'er quits. But apparently, it's all going to be worth it when we have that end result.

Right now, though, it feels as if we're at the screaming bloody murder point when we just want someone to rip the freaking thing out of us and into existence already!